College background a helpful scouting tool for Bucs

When many NFL coaches arrive at the Senior Bowl, they’re seeing players for the first time.

But for former college coaches such as Tampa Bay’s Greg Schiano or Philadelphia’s Chip Kelly, they’ve already been in some of these guys’ kitchens.

That degree of familiarity helps in the scouting process, especially at a time when NFL teams are paying more attention than ever to the backgrounds of players they’re drafting.

“I think the important thing is that he’s been in quite a few of these kids’ living rooms or been on the phone with them or texting them trying to stay in touch with them when he was recruiting them,” Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik said of Schiano, via Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times.

“Those are things we rely upon and talk about in our draft meetings. We talk about those things sometimes one on one here on the sideline. We’ll talk about this guy or that, and [Schiano will] say, ‘Yeah, I remember this guy is from so and so. Here’s how his family life was. I remember his father was really influential in his life.’

“Those are always good elements, and you can never have too much of that information. It’s king at this level.”

Two of Schiano’s Rutgers players (Rutgers linebackers Steve Beauharnais and Khaseem Greene) are in the Senior Bowl, and he recruited others.

Schiano downplayed the role of his previous job, saying “More information can’t hurt. I don’t know how much it helps, but it can’t hurt.”

If it helps offer insight to one pick this year, the Bucs are ahead of the game, since he wasn’t hired this time a year ago.

agree with xplicits. ganntt….your views are whack!! you dont know what you believe or why you believe it. schiano snagged only TWO of the players….so the rest didn’t like him enough. how does that help the Bucs??